ALLEGAN, MI -- A Hamilton man has asked the Allegan County Board of Commissioners to allow off-road vehicles on public streets, and says he has gotten hundreds of signatures on petitions circulated in the Hamilton and Holland areas.

Allegan County commissioners sent a request to allow off-road vehicles commonly referred to as four-wheelers to the county parks and recreation board.MLive file photo

Allegan County doesn't have ORV trails but the "same principle could be applied to rural roads," resident Joshua Driscoll told county commissioners at their meeting Thursday, Feb. 13.

Right now the closest ORV trails are in Silver Lake and Baldwin, according to Driscoll, who said trail riders in those areas are helping the local economies by patronizing gas stations and restaurants.

Driscoll said he wasn't asking for access to all roads, but just to dirt roads, and that an ordinance, if adopted, wouldn't apply to all all-terrain vehicles, but rather to off-road vehicles commonly known as four-wheelers. Right now none of them can go on Allegan County's roads.

Commission Chairman D. Mark DeYoung noted that allowing ORVs on roads is not in the county's parks plan, adding that allowing them on roads to bridge gaps between trails sounds OK with him.

"But to just open up certain sections, I don't know," DeYoung said. "I wouldn't want one in my neighborhood -- and I have one (ORV)."

There are no official ORV trails in the Allegan State Game Area, according to Driscoll, but some he described as "make-shift."

Commissioner Max Thiele said it's a complicated process to legalize ORV travel on county roads, including authorization by the Michigan Department of Transportation and a local ordinance.